Wednesday 26 December 2012

Thursday 18 October 2012

Jinkyun Ahu: On the surface of images

Decalcomie by Jinkyun Ahu
Displaying in his first major solo show at the Phoenix Brighton as part of the Photo Fringe festival Korean artist Jinkyun Ahu explores the relationship between him and his parents. In the series of photographs, named On the surface of images, Jinkyun Ahu repeats, reflects and dismembers his parents in an attempt to symbolise his family's relationship with death and the afterlife. The work also talks about how the legacy of the family is inherited from one generation to the next, as well as how qualities and traits of his parents have passed on to him. Similar to that of an image travelling from lens to negative, and negative to print. The familiar traces found in his parents help guide him in life.

Jinkyun work is vague and on the edge of surreal. The exhibition however is very strong and thought-provoking with new and interesting ways of displaying the work shown, placed on free standing chipboard walls and even projected into hole within the walls. The placement of mirrors seems important to the work, placed both within the work and in the gallery space, reflecting light around the space and your own reflection. 

Jinkyun exhibition was selected from over 100 submissions to the Brighton Photo Fringe OPEN 2012 by Clare Grafik, Susanna Brown and Oliver Chanarin.

Decalcomie - image taken by myself
 
Where is mom? - image taken by myself 
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Wednesday 17 October 2012

Brighton Photo Fringe 2012

Photo Fringe is a lens-based festival that allows both new and established photographers a chance to display their work through out a mixture of different exhibitions from Brighton & Hove and along the coast to St Leonard’s and Hastings. The whole festival has over 100 exhibitions and is one of the most inclusive photography festivals open freely to the public. Not only are there free exhibitions but also many artist talks, workshops and screenings plus a chance to pick up lots of free stuff like artist postcards and photographic magazines. The festival runs from October 6 till November 18 2012 giving you lots of time to have chances to go back and view again.

I went to Brighton Photo Fringe, which has over 50 free exhibitions in that city alone and a large number of different photographic styles and approaches. Traveling there with my university Southampton Solent and I was surprised as to the amount I was to see in only a few hours, even though many of the exhibitions are very small, I had a great day of sightseeing and wandering along the beachfront. I plan to travel back with a few friends before the festival finishes to view the last of the artist works I missed and would advise anymore with a passion for photography or art, not to miss this chance of seeing so many artists displaying for free and all in one place.

In later posts I will be reviewing the exhibitions I saw separately and more in-depth, as well as sharing pictures taken on the day and of the galleries.

Monday 14 May 2012

The Morality of Reportage Photography

When reading this artical http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/mar/08/world-press-photo-sean-ohagan about images of a man stoned to death in december of 2010. I was very shocked that these were taken, however i do know what stuff like this still happened within some parts of the world.


Stoned to Death, Somalia, 13 December.


After some thinking these are what i think of such images being taken: I believe images like this should be show to the world. As I feel that many of us are born, especially in first world counties, with wool over our eyes. We all live very comfortably and many of us not knowing much of the world outside our country and how lucky we really are. Taking pictures of tragic events is a way of showing the true world that we are living in. These photographers are a witness of those events and they should be shared in order for human beings to reflect more deeply onto the world, plus themselves and I think help shake the world out of their indifference. Photography brings forward issues and educate people who do not wish to listen to words. However when looking at these images it is shocking,it almost makes you not want to look or know about why this man has had this done to him because of guilt you were not there to stop it. Yet I feel it is disrespectful towards the stoned man to offer no captions or text explaining why this has happened to him.

"I have been a witness,and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated." – quote from James Nachtwey a documentary photographer of war and suffering

If people are more interested about war photography, how its done, why some feel the need to do it and what kind of person it takes. You should look at the documentary War Photographer. It can be found on YouTube and its really insightful. Focusing on James Nachtwey and the stress of dealing with viewing the worst of the world as a job.

Instagram - Good or Bad?

Instagram is an application for smartphones that has recently just been bought by Facebook for $1billion. For anyone who doesn't know the application, it allows the user to take a picture with their phone then add coloured filters and borders to it, to create a 'vintage' effect. You can then upload your photographs taken with the app on to the social network facebook, where friends can see and share with each other. The debate about Instagram is very heated. Many people turn their noses up at it, saying that it is not a true form of photography and laugh at those who class themselves as photographers that use it. While others simple see it as a fast and easy way to share and capture moments with each other, having fun with the many filters that make the pictures more appealing.

I am personally annoyed with seeing pictures taken on Instagram filling my facebook newfeed of mundane objects and scenes, blue skies, light poles, bus stations, coffee cups, office chairs and even paving stones, suddenly are classed as cool and amazing with a old rusty filter place on top of the image. Often the effect doesn't match the subject, a brand new pair fluffy slippers in bad lighting with a dusty scratched old 50s tint effect placed on top? really?

Yet I'm not saying that I think Instagram is a bad thing, as I have seen some very good photographs with good compersions and lighting. However I feel that many people look down upon Instagram simple because normally the bad photographs out weigh the good. Yet it quick and easy giving many people who don't have time or unable to understand film photography a chance to still show their artistic flare, which might have become lost without this app. But it often annoys people who send long amounts of time developing film and working really hard to get an effect, while suddenly instagram can do it in seconds.

Overall I think Instagram is good, if used by people who already understand image composition and lighting. Its very simpler to how digital photography and photoshop are looked down upon, but are slowly being accepted as a art form.

Monday 30 April 2012

ShowStudio - Selling Sex

I went back to ShowStudio to see their new exhibition called Selling Sex. To read about their previous exhibition scroll down and read my post ShowStudio - In Your Face. ShowStudio is an amazing place and i would advise everyone to check it out and its free to enter! They always display interesting and unusual work, that in most galleries would not. The exhibition contains a mixture of pieces such as photography, film, painting, fashion, collage and even sex toys.


Selling Sex battles against how many images of women created by the media that are done by men, often using the female body to get out to wider audience. The prospective in this exhibition is changed by featuring all female artists, therefore examining an 'self-other' relationship and examining their unique relationships to sex and the female nude. The exhibition allows women a chance to get there work displayed without the ''male gaze''. only 8% of the work exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art is created by women and at the the Tate’s female holdings amount to a only 15%. The imbalance doesn't only exist in fine art. But also in fashion, nearly all famous designers are male and major shots are done by top male photographers. Film women hold only 33% of all speaking roles and only 7% of all directors in Hollywood are women. And there remain only three industries in which women earn more money than men - pornography, prostitution and modelling.


ShowStudios aim is an exhibition made up of exclusively women artists looking at sex and nudity - examining a woman's version of a woman and asking how it differs from a man’s? Is an image of a nude woman empowered in the hand of a female artist? Does it resist traditionally constructed gender roles? Does it mock a voyeuristic male gaze?




The work I felt most draw towards was Porn sewn on Valentino Advert by Inge Jacobsen. Photography graduate Inge Jacobsen is a London based artist who takes found images and makes them her own through embroidering, cutting, and colleaguing.The images she uses are from women’s high fashion magazines and pornographic images found on the Internet. The reason I felt so draw towards this work is I have a personal passion for embroidery and collage, especially on photographic images.